Beyond the Sea
by Astra-The-Goddess
Summary: Teresa has entered into what most artists call an art block. Her friend Kelly decides they should go to Europe for a three month trip to see if they can effectively end the art block. During their three months in London they meet actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Benedict shows her a side of the world she only gets a glimpse into...if she stays in California.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: Hello readers!_

_This story was inspired by __'s story __**Dream For Me Tonight**,_ _a Tom Hiddleston/OC story. This story is, however, not a Tom Hiddleston/OC story. It is a Benedict Cumberbatch/OC story and takes place in the same universe as her story. I hope you enjoy. PM me if you have any questions, comments, concerns. Reviews are always read and answered one way or another._

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The sound of pencils scratching on paper could be heard in the office, then the sound of an eraser, and then finally the crumpling paper and toss to the trash can. It missed, the metal making a faint noise before thudding on the floor. The woman who threw the sketch away started again, drawing the figure of a man who was tall, with a long dark jacket and dress shirt, which pulled a bit at the buttons.

"Hey Terri?" The name came after a light knock, a short, blonde woman standing at her door, "How's the sketch going?" The other woman watched as another ball of paper flew to the trash can.

"Awful." Teresa replied, sighing in frustration, "None of my sketches made it past Round One." She said as she motioned to the full trash can behind her, paper scattered about on the floor from missed attempts.

"Maybe you need a break?" Her friend said as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe. "There are a few of us from the concept team going to go to London for a tour. We'll be gone for a few months and they have one more opening. You haven't had a real vacation in three years, why not come?"

"Kelly I really doubt going to London now will help for this character."

"Maybe it will. Come on Terri you have to come." Kelly begged her hazel eyes big and pleading. Teresa looked at her friend and frowned, not liking that puppy dog look. She shook her head but Kelly still stood there, waiting for her friend to say yes.

"Ohhh…Fine fine, if it'll stop your begging I'll go."

"Awesome! I promise you'll have fun, you always do." She said, hugging Teresa quickly, "Now back to work before Harold catches us." At his name Teresa groaned, turning back to the paper in front of her. She looked at the piece of sketch paper and sighed, trying again for the main character. She put one stroke of the pencil down on the paper and growled in frustration, tossing the whole pad behind her and putting her head on the desk.

* * *

London in January was - in one word - freezing, absolutely freezing. Teresa - who was normally a very talkative person - just let her teeth chatter. She was much more used to the warm climate of Burbank, California. She was bundled up in a dark gray wool jacket, blue knit scarf with matching knit hat, and blue finger-less gloves so she could use her phone properly, though at the moment her hands were shoved into her pockets. Her legs had a pair of black wool leggings and another pair of normal leggings under that, stuffed into black boots.

Kelly - Teresa's coworker and boss - was originally from Wisconsin and was used to the chilly climate. Though her three years in California meant she was a bit sensitized to chilly weather. She wore a blue ski jacket with white earmuffs and a white wool scarf, her legs in jeans with knee high boots. Teresa grew up in Phoenix, Arizona so she naturally was never sensitized to cold weather.

"Kelly, where are we going again?" Teresa asked, shivering.

"This really neat pub my friend Laurie told me about. She said it had really good food and was relatively quiet in terms of the nightclub scene. She said she'll meet us there tonight."

"Good, I hate not knowing people."

"Like that stopped you before." Kelly laughed, her breath making fog in the air. As they walked toward the bar there were cameras everywhere, and Kelly started walking to the restaurant but someone in a police jacket stopped her.

"Hold up ma'am. No one comes into the bar until they're done."

"What are you talking about?" Teresa asked, walking up to him.

"Americans," He said, shaking his head, "They're filming a scene for an upcoming TV show, once they cut you can go in, they still want the place to have some sort of restaurant feel and don't want to pay extras." Teresa sighed, shaking her head.

"Fair enough, we can wait." She said, shivering. As the girls stood there in the cold a man ran out in a jacket and was nearly hit by a car that was standing by for that scene, and as they ran off down the alley the director yelled 'CUT!' and the two men walked back, both grabbing jackets for the chill. "Can we go in now?" She asked.

"Yea you can go in." The policeman said, letting the two girls walk into the bar, which was set up to look like an Italian restaurant. Teresa walked up to the bar and the barmen walked up, smiling.

"Hello ladies, what can I get you tonight?"

"Gin and tonic for me, red wine for her." Teresa said, pointing to Kelly as she shrugged off her jacket, showing off a large dark brown sweater that went past her hips. After she sat at the bar she took out her sketchbook and started sketching the people around her.

The men that ran out of the bar were back at the table now, apparently for a retake of the scene they just shot. Teresa turned to look at the actor with his back to the wall, and sketched a quick profile. High, prominent cheekbones, dark curly hair, and his upper lip was just like Cupid's bow.

He was quite handsome, if she was honest.

"Terri."

"What?" Teresa looked at Kelly, blinking a bit as she looked away from the actor.

"You're staring."

"Oh."

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_AN: I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are always appreciated, short and sweet or long and wonderful. I don't care about the length so long as you leave one!_


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Hello readers!_

_Chapter two is finally here! I'm glad so many of you loved the first chapter, here's chapter two! I hope to get this story on a regularly update schedule (at least once a week) fairly soon. I will also hopefully have a tumblr or polyvore set up for the outfits in the story so you get some idea as to what the characters are wearing. Also, if any of you have any information on Ben's social life/film schedule/anything I'd greatly appreciate it._

_Edit: I do have a tumblr now, at _

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The actors left and reentered the building about three times after that. It was an odd dance it seemed like, the two coming in and out of the bar, reciting lines that Terri could barely make out from the small chatting in the background of the bar. At that point Kelly's friend – Riley - had entered the bar and was chatting with the blonde.

"So, how long are you ladies in town?" Riley asked, sipping her scotch.

"Only a few months," Kelly replied, munching on a basket of chips, or fries as Terri knew them, that they ordered. "Terri got a case of art block, which seems to have passed."

It was true, the page Terri opened up to had poses of the actor she drew earlier: ones of him popping his coat collar, his mouth open in reply to the blonde actor, and a few where he deliberately stared at her because she was drawing him, causing them to retake a few scenes.

"Terri, where'd you go to school?" Riley asked, looking at the sketches.

"The Art Institute in San Diego, California." Terri told her, "I'm a concept artist for Kelly's animation team."

"She draws them up then the rest of my team get to work on bringing the character to life." Kelly said, smiling a bit, "The others are at the hotel sleeping off jet lag but I promised you I'd meet you here."

"Well I'm glad you did." Riley smiled, running a hand through her short, red hair. "Now, how about another drink?" Terri's eyes were back on the page in front of her, working on a larger sketch of the actor's face. She let her pencil move up, down, and then up again on the page as she darkened the line for his lip, then she shaded it lightly. Her pencil then moved to his cheekbones, defining them a bit more so they seemed like they could cut you if you placed your hand on his cheek. His eyes though, while the actor sounded like a man that didn't care, his eyes held a lot of emotion. She wondered what he was thinking, during those scenes. She never watched an actor recite lines like that before; she was always the one watching them on the screen. As she was darkening the curly locks of his hair, which covered two thirds of his forehead and half of his ears, a man walked up behind her and cleared his throat.

"It'll be on me, ladies." A deep, masculine voice sounded to Terri's right, whose nose was still in her sketchbook, finishing the profile she started on earlier as the front view of the actor's face was finished. "As long as I get that page in her sketchbook." At the mention of this Terri laughed.

"Over my dead body!" She exclaimed, turning to face the man that she was drawing for the past fifteen minutes. The moment she saw him smile she just sighed and tore the page out, handing it to him. "Here, I was going to color it but now I don't feel like it." The actor chuckled and folded the page in half, then in half again, pocketing it in his pants pocket.

"Ah come on Terri, you can always draw another." Kelly said, patting her friend on the back. "Don't listen to her; she loves to hand her art out to people."

"Do not." Terri said, a childish tone to her statement. The man in the sketch chuckled again, the blonde actor coming over and tugging his arm.

"Come on Ben, they want to shoot the next scene." The blonde actor said, smiling at the women, "Sorry ladies, have to run."

"Hopefully we'll run into each other again soon, Terri." Ben said, smiling at her. Terri nodded, scribbling her email address on a napkin then handed it to him.

"Here, since I don't live in London it seems like a bad idea to give you my cell number." Terri said, smirking. Ben just smiled and pocketed the napkin in the same pocket as the picture. "Remember you owe me a drink."

"I'll be sure to remember." He said. "Nice meeting you ladies." He said, walking out of the bar with the other actor. Riley looked at Kelly and they both smiled. As they waited for the crew for the TV series to clear out of the bar, Terri went back to her sketches, trying to recreate Ben's face from her memory. Once all of the crew was out of the bar, Riley looked at Terri.

"Oh he was handsome." Riley said, laughing a bit. "He totally was flirting with you."

"He was not." Terri said, a light blush creeping on her cheeks as she erased one of his eyes to redraw it.

"Yeah? How come you gave him your email address?" Kelly asked, teasing her friend.

"Because he owes me $5.50 for the sketches, that's why!" Terri said, sipping her gin and tonic. Kelly just laughed, shaking her head.

The rest of the night went on like that, Kelly and Riley catching up on old times while Terri tried to sketch Ben's face from her memory.

* * *

Later that evening Terri was finishing her sketches for the comic characters, ignoring the fact that Kelly was absolutely right about going to London. Her computer was out at the end of her bed, open to her email in a desperate hope that Ben would email her that night. She just shook her head, her brown hair up in a messy bun where she kept a pencil. She was currently sketching Ben in motion, running down an alley. The long coat that he wore was flying behind him, his hair pulled back away from his face as he was running. Terri cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out how to draw his acting friend when she heard her computer _ding._

She smiled and quickly pulled over her computer, setting it on her lap as she opened the email, quickly skimming it over.

_Terri,_

_I do apologize for Martin pulling me away that quickly but we had to finish filming. The series is fairly labor intensive but luckily we're almost done filming. I would like to also thank you again for your sketches and hope to see you around London sometime after I'm done filming._

_Ben_

Teresa's smile widened at the email, and she let her fingers fly over the keys, typing up a quick reply.

_Hi Ben,_

_You owe me $5.50 for the sketch. American dollars or British pounds works fine, though I would like the British equivalent to $5.50 considering I'm staying here for a few months. How about we go and grab something to drink when you're done filming? I'd like to finish one of those sketches on that paper. _

_Terri_

She hit the send button and closed her laptop, all her energy seeming to have been sucked out of her. The young artist let her head fall back onto the headboard and sleep soon claimed the young woman, sending her into a dreamless state.

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_AN: I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are always appreciated, short and sweet or long and wonderful. I don't care about the length so long as you leave one! (I feel like this might become a tag for my chapter ends)  
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_I'm so very thankful for all of my followers and the wonderful reviews that people have left me. They all made me smile and I hope I continue to make you smile with my story. I love you all! _


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